1. Field
The following description relates to an apparatus and method for providing a broadcasting service, and more particularly, to a terminal, system and method for providing augmented broadcasting service in which a graphic object created using a computer is presented to be overlaid on a broadcast service image, and interaction is allowed between a user and the overlaid graphic object.
2. Description of the Related Art
Augmented reality (AR) denotes presentation of a graphic image created using a computer to be overlaid on a still image or a moving image played on a variety of platforms such as a mobile device, a tablet, a personal computer (PC) and a television (TV). In other words, AR may be technology for showing a virtual object overlaid on the real world. AR is becoming a new type of technological trend that provides various services such as advertising, entertainment and education.
With the proliferation of smart phones and the advent of various application programs, people want to experience various types of interaction through media used by their devices. According to such a tendency, AR services are advancing so that a user can obtain information in various forms through interaction with an overlaid graphic object in an application program executed on his or her device.
According to such a trend, AR service is provided in the field of TV broadcasting. Virtual advertising and a service in which a commentator tells users additional information using computer graphics in sport broadcasting, are examples of a typical service. However, strictly speaking, such services cannot be referred to as AR services in the true sense of the term. In these services, a TV broadcasting station merely transfers TV programs to which AR has been applied, to users as one-way media. In other words, no interaction that can be experienced in a mobile environment based on a smart phone has been taken into consideration.
Specifically, in the AR service provided in the field of existing TV broadcasting (services), a broadcast content video image and a graphic object image that is additionally shown to be overlaid on the video image, are synthesized to generate a new video image, and a continuous stream of such synthesized video images is transmitted as broadcast images to which AR has been applied.
Thus, a TV (or TV set-top box) cannot separately process an AR graphic object in a broadcast image to which AR service has been applied, and it is not possible to provide additional service through interaction between the AR graphic object and a user.